Would you consider this SCALPING?

(my bold)
That's perhaps not as much of an answer as it seems. Here's the interesting question: is the "established value" the price difference between the Special Version and the Normal Version (i.e. $27), the approximation of an evenly split price between the two heads based partly on the prices of heads and bodies sold separately by the company (i.e. $50-odd), or the value established on the second hand market (that is, the price at which the heads commonly sell, i.e. $70 or so)?

 

There's an element of "buyer beware" here, or at least "buyer, be informed". There is no law to stop someone from selling for money on an Internet site what they got free from an Internet site so it can't really be scalping (which is a crime). It's being opportunistic. I guess people who resent it can vote with their wallets and not purchase an item they know to be marked up.
Everything's only worth what someone will pay for it.

 

I've having this question in my head for a long time..
"is it right to sell the event head?"
I mean, usually people are getting those head for free from event and after they received the free head, some of them decide to sell it for $80, $90, $100 or more.. I am sorry if anyone selling their event head feels offended reading my reply but it's just sounds no right to me to sell something you got for free for a regular price...

 

I don't think it could ever be considered scalping if you had done work on the head, it's merely adding the value for your work.

People can sell anything for whatever people are prepared to pay for it. It's just free commerce. I see nothing wrong with it.

 

i agree. if there is someone out there willing to pay the price you set on your item, then i say sell away.

 

I don't see it that way. The person who attended the event had to pay to get in, in all likelihood, they also might have had traveling and lodging expenses. So the head wasn't exactly "free". And if you're a buyer wanting that head, and you were halfway across the country with no way to attend the event and get it, then you'd probably be more than happy to pay the regular price to someone who had attended the event.

 

1: Is getting a sleeping head, modding it and painting it, or simply painting it, and turning around to sell it for $70 considered scalping?
No, because the excess would be the work they put in on the head.

2: Is getting a sleeping head, then simply turning around and selling it on the board for $70 (or $90) without having touched it at all, considered scalping
No. Although the head cost $27 who have bought the whole set, it is not offered by the website on its own.
You cannot just get the head for $27
If people don't want to be 'ripped off', they can go to the official site and get the extra head for $27 with a whole set.

 

Just a note: while there are some dolls (and perhaps some heads?) that are available only by attending events like the Volks Dolpas, I think the focus in this thread was on the type of extra heads sent out by companies during special "event periods." The best known, perhaps, are the Luts Juri (Christmas) and Nanuri (summer) events, although Fairyland, Iplehouse, and Lati have also offered event heads, and probably many companies besides.

In these cases, people simply have to order a certain dollar value's worth of items during a certain period in order to receive the head; while it can still be argued that the head isn't "free," since the recipient usually has to buy a doll or at least a body to qualify, it's not the same as the expense incurred by someone who attends a non-cyber event.

 

1: Is getting a sleeping head, modding it and painting it, or simply painting it, and turning around to sell it for $70 considered scalping?

Not really, I would assume the extra charge would be for the work put into it. The cost of the supplies for the faceup and the modding, you know?

2: Is getting a sleeping head, then simply turning around and selling it on the board for $70 (or $90) without having touched it at all, considered scalping I was thinking in SD sized terms at first so that's actually not all that expensive But to be on topic, I think people would buy it if it's not outrageously expensive for what it is. If they know what the going price is and what you're charging is outrageously over the going price the item will just sit there until someone either purchases it or the price drops.

 

I bought a sleeping Shushu head for $60 if I can remember correctly. I also bought a modded Lishe head recently for about the same price. Both heads aren't particularly limited or special, but I paid those prices because I wanted those particular heads.

I bought the Shushu head here because I particularly wanted a sleeping version to practice face-ups on and had I tried to buy her from Fairyland I'd have had to buy the whole doll as well when I wasn't interested in getting another doll at the time, I just wanted to practice painting. The sleeping Shushu head isn't worth $27, it's worth the same amount as the open-eyed head, it only costs $27 on the webpage because that's an incentive to get you to spend more money on the site! It's a common sales trick. It won't cost Fairyland much more to produce sleeping heads and they offer them at a discounted price, but the buyer gets taken in and buys them both. Fairyland then offer face-ups for both heads and makes even more money

I consider it scalping if the sleeping head is sold at above and away the going rate for the open-eyed head, particularly if nothing has been done to it, but if it is being sold at a comparable price I think that's fair. As for free event heads, I think that selling the head can recoup some of the shipping or customs costs involved in importing a doll. You might have got the head free, but everything else comes at a price. I won't be selling my Juri head (I'll be interested in swaps if Fairyland send me mine in the wrong colour ), but I won't judge others for selling theirs if they're selling it at a standard MNF head price. Fairyland added the disclaimer that the head can become a regular head at any time, so it's not really a limited gift and can't be sold as one when Fairyland themselves say it's not limited.

 

The OP is absolutely wrong. If you paint or mod something you have the right to ask for any price you want. It is not scalping. As others have explained it so much better I won't get into it, but I just wanted to state again, an artist can charge whatever they want for their work, it's their perogative and no one is holding a gun to your head to buy it.
Also, there is no rule governing the price for sleeping heads. I recently bought an event head, and the person selling it asked what would be a fair price so I said 80 bucks, which is what I've seen other Juri heads (unpainted) go for. That said, she could have asked for any price, and it then would be my choice to say, OK, that is comfortable for me, I'll pay it, or no, too rich for my blood, I will pass.
It's not as if you are waiting for a kidney. I think it's a little obnoxious to try to bully other members of this hobby into following arbitrary price outlines. If this were a selling forum and there were forum rules (ie, you can't charge more than 10% of what you paid or whatever) that would be different, but it isn't.
You like the price, buy it, or try to barter, but it's just bad behavior to get all huffy about "inflated" prices. You don't need a sleeping head for your doll, you just want it.

 

I'm going to go with no, it's not.

Here's an example:

1. On eLuts you can buy Delf the Moon for $410.
2. You can also get the Moon Special for $470 (thats $60 difference)
3. If you go into Option Parts, they have the dreaming head for sale for $84. Add makeup, and it's $134.

Companies give you the dreaming head as an option to get you to spend more money. You're actually getting a bargain if you buy them together like that, rather than change your mind and do it later.

 

On the topic of selling free heads, what's really wrong with recouping some money you spent with the free gift that it'd cost money for you to find a body, wig and eyes for?

Suppose you're not one of those people that enjoy body sharing amonst their dolls? If you want a body for your free head you have to go buy one, wig, and eyes.

Suppose you're one that doesn't really have a use for the free head? You don't want it/like it/can't afford to keep it, etc. Why is it bad to sell it off to someone that didn't make the event or didn't want to buy a whole doll just to get a head?

 

I don't think its wrong to sell something you got for free, I had bought a 08 man head off the market for $100 bucks and glad that I did pay for it, I didn't have the $600 or something to shell out for another doll in order to get it from Luts so I was happy to pay on something someone else got for free.

 

Precisely. In a free market system, you have the "right" or more correctly ablility, to sell something for whatever a person will buy it for. It is the responsibility of the buyer to ascertain the fairness of the price.

 

I must confess that I do not have much overview over the BJD market at this point, but generally speaking, I only feel "scalped" if I know someone ordered a popular item only to be able to sell it with a huge mark-up. I consider this a bit unfair because it makes it harder for collectors and fans to acquire items... of course, there is nothing you can do against it and the price that people are willing to pay defines the actual value- but I do generally not buy from people of which I know they only got a rare item to make profit, for example if they sell a doll they won in a company's lottery for a high price before they even receive it.

 

No and NO..

the bottom line is we as a community ether support or stand against issues like this. If someone is asking too much for a "part" of a doll and some one is willing to pay it who are we to say its wrong.. On the same hand we are the ones who can stand together and NOT buy it at an inflated price ....

It goes both ways.

 

Gotta agree with Phoenix Rising. The marketplace dictates what can be charged. (I mean the marketplace as a global term not as a service here on DOA). If no one will pay it, it won't be sold. A very stuffy collector once said to me: "Madam, there is an @ss for every seat". If someone wants it badly enough and will pay, it just drives up the price for everyone else. I wouldn't necessarily call it scalping, it's just supply and demand.

 

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with selling something for more than you paid for it. Walk out your front door and hike down the street until you get to the first store you come to. If you walk into that store and pick up the first thing you see they have for sale, I guarantee that whoever owns that store paid less for that item than what they want you to pay for it. Yes, the entire reason they're in business is to get money from you. Yes, they're a middleman between you and the manufacturer. Yes, they're taking advantage of the fact that they buy in bulk what they can then resell individually. But nobody in their right mind would point a finger at the cashier and yell "scalp!"

Scalping had been defined earlier as forcing somebody to pay more than a fair market price for something by restricting the market so that they have to buy from you. The internet's a big place, and if somebody wants to ask for $27, or $90, or $800 for something that they themselves paid $27 for, then it's a fair price for whoever pays that price. If you, as a consumer, decide that an item is only worth $27 because that is the price you've seen at other places, then it is your prerogative to not buy it when you see on sale for more.

 

Not scalping at all.

Whatever the price of of each piece individually, let's not forget that fairyland doesn't sell sleeping heads individually! So in order for someone, anyone, to get a sleeping head, an entire doll must be bought and paid for, which is a lot of money to put down.

The way I see it, the intial owner of the sleeping head had to invest a lot of money on the spot to get the doll and it's heads. So any "markup" can be viewed like a fee for that fact that they financed the entire thing to begin with. Also, when people do splits, everyone pays the "fair" price for the pieces they want, because nobody is financing more than their fair share. It's only when a person buys everything themselves and then later they decide they dont want this or that piece that things start going for more.

I think it's fair.